I took advantage of this evening's clear skies to try out the Super Circuits PC88WR (90 degree FOV / 0.003 lux). Compact and easy to mount using the supplied mounting hardware. Easy to hook up and operate. I first pointed it at Polaris which barely registered. Then over to Orion. All of the 7 brightest stars registered but of those the faintest (the belt stars) just barely registered. So it looks like mag 2 is about as faint as it will go. I might have thought about keeping it anyway but there was also a very bright hot pixel at lower center. So it's going back with a suggestion the offer a similar camera but with the "guts" of the PC164C which is rated at 0.001 lux. I have a PC164C but no lens. However a friend has a lens he thinks will fit so I'll be trying that next. patrick On 11 Dec 2009, at 19:54, Patrick Wiggins wrote:
The camera arrived today as promised. Tiny little thing measuring all of 60mm long and 20mm wide.
If the weather forecast is accurate it'll be a few nights before I get to try it out.
On 11 Dec 2009, at 17:32, Canopus56 wrote:
Not being mechanically ATM inclined, I also prefer the off-the-shelf approach. Surplusshed sells 6 inch acrylic domes vis via the Croatian home-brew design.
As it happens it was my search for domes that led to the camera.
My initial thought was to install a ~1 meter diameter glass dome in the ceiling of my library through which I could watch the sky for meteors and clouds. No luck finding such a dome yet, but the new camera may work in the meantime.
patrick